Intro to the making of: week 7: 6/11/17: Perspective exercises and presentations.

For week 7's session of intro to the making of we would be looking into starting another mini brief of the project which was Set Design and one element we would be looking at Perspective. I was familiar with the method of perspective from high school to present day and it was one of the elements of background art and scene creation in comic books the key to it was vanishing points. This was also an element in different types of animation such as, doing story boarding, layouts, set design, concept and background art in animation. Annabeth informed us that the idea of perspective came from the Romans and Greeks who had a good idea of perspective in their sculptures and architecture whilst Egyptian art was more pictographic and flat on the wall. We were shown many examples of perspective and it was part of an element called Oplique/isometric projection which was a geometric projection that seemed to focus on a drawing in the three dimensions of 2D drawings.

example of perspective drawing:

Work (c) Alexander Montgomery.

We began our first exercise in perspective which was one point perspective, which was basically the technique used to sketch out elements like paths in a street or train tracks through a valley for example and is used by artists like Leonardo Davinci who did work in perspective studies. The idea being was that using grids and lines to trace the vanishing point in the middle of the line and every line comes towards the vanishing point and the key element was distance. The principle being that the further away something gets the smaller the object or person which gives it more depth. This raised thoughts on story boarding and camera angles and the position of the character it could be split into three different elements;

1. Mid angle: Horizon line goes through the characters chest
2. Low angle: Horizon line goes through the characters knees
3. High angle: Horizon line goes through the characters head.

We were shown examples of concept artists that designed sets using quick thumbnail sketches such as Ken Adams who was know for his work on designing the sets for the James Bond movies like Thunderball and Dr.No. We were then shown examples of perspective in story board layouts one of which was actually from one of my favourite Studio Gibli films Spirited Away and looking at the image it seemed that the artist used coloured pencils to sketch in the shading of the piece before applying the final touches, this was something that I didn't know about and could be of use to me. This came from a book called Studio Gibli Layout designs which Annabeth had today to pass round the rest of the group and I found it the most interesting and decided to get said book at a later date, but for the time being took some photos to look at in my own time. see below:

Book photos for documentation and drawing development.

We then saw layout examples from films such as Star Wars the original Trilogy and Lady & The Tramp film background art that was made in the year 1955 and I instantly recognised this as the way animators did their animation before computers came into the frame so to speak, Annabeth agreed with my observation as it as an example of how animators used to paint on glass frames to capture certain elements such as the glow from street lamps or the very glow of the moon at night. We looked at a film example of one point perspective in a film by Stanley Kubrick which seemed to focus on the film moving quickly looking at the one point perspective idea. We did a practical exercise using one point perspective and cubes something I was familiar with from graphics in High School and how to draw Manga and Comic books guide books. 

This was where a rule was needed to make sure the lines were straight in the sketch and to begin was to draw a horizontal line going across the page of our sketchbooks then the vertical lines would be used to capture the floors of the cubes. When drawing the cubes I followed the lines going further away and further in which was the point of depth of diminution of things getting smaller when they're further away or bigger when close up. I did have some trouble with some of the cubes admittedly and did revert to drawing squares and sketching in the lines towards the vanishing point, which was a surprise to me given how long I've done the technique. We were then shown an exercise in Photoshop where surprisingly there was a feature called vanishing point which we would explore for ourselves the idea being we would get an image off google then using this with the feature we would try and plan out some grids within elements of the photo. 

The image in question was that of a train station that used one point perspective then on a new layer and going into the filter option and select vanishing point we begin to use the line tool to isolate areas that when joined together become grids within the photo, which could be of use in set design later on. I was new to this feature but was curious to learn about it but before going into it I marked the vanishing point of the photo using the brush tool on a white colour swatch then using the vanishing point feature to create some grids based off the selected areas it was trying to analyse. When created we could move these grids around the area we focused on to show the distance and size. I had some difficulties as some times the grid wouldn't form and we were told if the lines were in red they couldn't be rendered yet until corrected. 

Annabeth helped me correct the issues and I could see how it worked and it could be rendered by the use of the option render within photoshop by access of a pull down window on the screen then click ok. When going back in the grids would still be present. With this we could build a quick perspective drawing which would also work within perspective drawing within a photographic refference. I began sketching my version of a train station to get an idea of perspective and the size of characters and images in terms of size and it gave me chance to refine and remember the use of the method in illustrations. See below:

I found this exercise to be rather educational and I may consider revisiting this in my own time using either illustration work or photos that use one point perspective. 

We then moved to the subject of two point perspective which was where the vanishing points disappeared in the image and was used to create elements such as houses, city corners or even interiors of said houses. When we draw to the edges we don't want to be drawing exactly to the grid but we learned that there were limitations to the linear perspective and there were many lines of perspective there was an article about this that we could look at in our own time. We took to the subject of planes within the scenes which were foreground, mid-ground and background, which brought us to watch a disney documentary about how they did background animation and After Affects was done before computers were invented. The idea being that they used a special camera which was known as a Super Cartoon Camera which had several different plates with the different aspects of the backgrounds which are then broken down into frames. These were split into the distances from the viewer of the film that move to or away from the camera shot. 

The cameras unique because it doesn't shoot sideways but downwards which was dubbed the multiplane character. This was used in many a feature film such as Bambi or even in The Little Mermaid. Each plane would be on one of the shelves in the frames below the camera painted in oil and on glass the planes could be moved in different directions pending on the scene in the film. In the camera the camera man can see the whole piece combined as one and coordinates the positioning then shoots one single frame and does it frame by frame, which does make it look flat and the key to this was movement. This spoke to me as stop motion for 2D animation it was inspiring to see how a scene was put together in the days before computers. This camera was used in instances when they needed to zoom in on objects in a scene since before this was made the frames were put onto film and the characters placed onto a background painted on celluloid and was done in a panorama like effect so that when the second of film was made the background needed to move in accordance and gives that sort of 3D effect. 

However there were limits to the flat backgrounds and when zooming in everything grows larger this was where this camera came into effect to add that realistic element in a two dimensional camera. 

I was all but amazed by the use of this and though it could be done in after effects now I felt perhaps the old ways should stay with us as they are what got Disney cartoons where they are today. 

The point of this was to see the background broken down in frames to create a realistic element of movement within the animation. Getting back to the two point perspective we then conducted the same exercise with the cubes using two point perspective which was similar to how we would draw city building corner streets. I began by sketching out the horizon line then marked the two vanishing points at each end which are meant to disappear off the page and the depth has to go into them for elements such as set design and the elements within a house interior. 

Lines were drawn within the sheet and using the squares and lines to mark out the size and shape of the cubes within this piece and we could mark out the squares from different faces on the cube on the lines. When doing this activity we were told we could also practice this in doing a drawing using this exercise of perspective and immediately I decided to do an interior drawing of an apartment building. I didn't find some aspects of this difficult as I needed to do many lines off the vanishing points and soon I began to see a floor begin to form within this grid of lines and from this drew in windows, walls, corners and furniture. 

I could see this take shape but one element of concern was the kitchen area such as the desks as I wanted to make this a good example. I showed this to Annabeth and said that the vanishing points were inside the page when they were meant to disappear off the page but I explained since I was working in such a small scale I had to do this in this particular fashion. As the illustration progressed I enlarged the windows so that it would show the outside and the horizon line much like some of the examples that were shown to us. I even went, as far as, inking the piece so that I could digitally colour this later for my blog post. 

Annabeth mentioned that when doing interiors it needed to be flipped like we were doing the method back to front which I could understand. We were also shown an example of three point perspective which focused primarily on a birds or worms eye view, this was a complicated process and we wouldn't be doing it in this lesson and were encouraged to approach this in our own time if we wanted to. This method was an approach to dynamic action from films and comic books be it super heroes or villains battling above the city or someone watching the scene from below. example below:

Two elements to this was two key points Zenith, which meant up and Nadar which meant down which was something described when reading the stars, it was really a matter of what story we were trying to tell be it a car chase or perhaps a harmonic scene from below the sea. This was something photographers could use in something called forced perspective to create deep focus in photos and give them more depth which was an element used in many a film in the past and in the present day. 

After break we began to show our presentations on our characters design elements of this mini brief on demons and devils and those of us who had done the presentation myself included went up one by one to present our work. I kept the presentation concise and explained the origin of the character and what elements that I found the most successful in this activity such as the maquette and the colour ways aspect of the project. see slides below:

Origin of the character: Child of Light story developed back in college project

Moodboards on demons and devils.

Thumbnail sketches and turnarounds

demonic cowls mood board.

Developed Turnaround sheet.

Colourways turn arounds.

Clay Marquettes 

In my feedback Annabeth liked that I included some of my best elements being the marquette and turnarounds she suggested that I should focus on the highlights of my character to show some details otherwise I had made good references. We then listened to Chris's presentation who seemed to have done a lot of research into his character even showing his attempt into doing shading within photoshop and I was most impressed with the marquette that he'd created even adding the aspect of comedy of having the demon as an accountant which was a very creative story for the character. He was proud of his work and I could see why. Adam's presentation seemed very detailed and his thumbnail design seemed very similar to the style of Rick and Morty and in his mood board he had taken a rather horror film like angle to his work, and much like me he had shown the origin of his character from a story he was doing when he was developing when he was drawing by hand even showing a script this I felt was truly astonishing. 

He clearly had sorted out his best elements of presentation very well even including some 2D animation in a turnaround and walk cycle which was something that I originally wanted to do but couldn't find the time. Annabeth had mentioned that it was a good idea to bend the brief to our own ideas about the project and how we approach it however we may choose which was one of the aspects to do our work independently on this course.Georgia's presentation of her character took a similar approach to Chris's in my view as her character was a caretaker of hell who cleans up bones, blood and other elements after the tortures that take place in the underworld. I noticed that one key point she stuck to was the horns on the devil himself which was a very good observation which she incorporated into her thumbnails and character turn around and again she had incorporated an animated turn around of the character she had created, even describing his personality. 

The presentation that took my interest most of all was Beth's presentation of her character which was a female shape shifter. What took my interest the most was the way she did her research into different demons making a reference to the bible itself and in her initial concepts she researched an element called the Seven Princes of Hell, even doing her own interpretations of the demons. Even using real life elements such as wasps for her designs. Including a creature that looked like a dragon but in reality was a sea demon which in the bible was originally a male and female until God came to the terrifying realisation that they could rule the world if allowed to reproduce and so he had the female  killed causing the male to fly into rage. This was a really good reference within the development and soon came to producing her end character which was a shapeshifter which embodied lust which stated as a silhouette but soon developed the demon was essentially a being who as Beth put it "sleeps with men and kills them." 

The female designed was inspired by Jessica Rabbit and and Hollywood from cool world and as she defined the sketch it began to blossom it a very good design of the devil it seemed she considered the anatomy of her body which seemed to add more to the lust angle. The idea being she could morph into what a man greatly desired and acts upon it. The story of this character was also of interest, the story being that when as a human her boyfriend had cheated on him and in her grief and anger she made a deal with the devil to become this woman, sleep with him and punish him for what he had done to her. However like many deals with the devil there was a catch to it she had become a demon and couldn't change back forced to do the devils deeds, and could only be returned to normal until her 10'000 year sentence had been served. This was a very interesting storyline to this character and I could see a reference to Meg from Disney's Hercules as she made a deal with Hades, to save her boyfriend only to cheat on her which was a good element as many a dark ones story began with tragedy or heart break. 

The developed digital sketch was very refined in presentation and was a very good interpretation of the theme of lust and the colour ways was very good as well and I had to agree that the purple hair seemed to reflect this character very well. Annabeth reminded us that we needed to keep up with our blogs as there would come a day that we would need to review them and see where we are up to in terms of the course time table. 

Reflecting back on this lesson I would say that this lesson was very insightful even giving me much to think about and a new book to look at for reference in shadowing on characters in animation and how to interpret them. In terms of perspective I felt it came easy as I had been doing it ever since high school and has developed considerably. In terms of the presentation I felt that I could've improved on the story being spoken as some had lasted beyond two minutes and include the back story behind the Brother of Shadows but I was glad I had included the origin point of my character. In conclusion the lesson was very insightful and that I shall try using three point perspective in my spare time as it may help me in my work of set design. I believe that the other members of the group had taken very interesting approaches to this theme and I do hope they build upon their characters in the lessons to come.